UPDATE 4:15 p.m. At Shepherd Elementary in Ward 4, as uniformed students spilled out of school for the afternoon, voters walked into the gymnasium and almost immediately were directed to empty booths.

Celeste Woolfork cast her first-ever electronic ballot in under four minutes. "I was surprised there was no wait at all," she said. Though mid-afternoon traffic is generally light on Election Day at Shepherd, Woolfork said this was like "light lite."

"Usually our neighborhood comes together here; but I only see four people, as opposed to the 40 I'd usually see. I'm going to have to go home and make some calls to make sure people are voting."

Moments later, Iris Parks emerged from the school. It took her longer to explain her votes (Fenty, Orange, "the white Michael Brown") than it had taken her to vote. "I can only go on what Adrian has done for the city," she said of her mayoral pick. "Crime levels are down. Better housing. Education has improved. I think he deserves another four years."

-- J. Freedom du Lac

UPDATE 4:07 p.m. "I went out to a lot of forums and heard the two debate, but Mr. Orange has far more substance than Kwame Brown," said Jeannette Mobley, a 37-year Ward 5 resident.

Mobley -- whose husband was once a campaign chairman for Orange -- said she liked when Orange stressed the need for contracts with minority and locally-owned businesses during his time on council. Mobley, who owns a small-business teaching job skills, said small businesses are "the bread and butter" of the city's economy and could help low employment in wards 5, 7 and 8.

She said she didn't like the cronyism that came out of the Fenty administration, "among a litany of other things."

Leslie Hunter, 57, said she agreed with Mobley on Orange, but voted for Fenty.

"I am swayed by his education reform advances. ... Obviously it has been bumpy, with kinks and missteps, but overall I think it is important," said Hunter, a 30-year D.C. resident who added that the arguments about charisma were not compelling to her. "I'm more interested in substance and actual accomplishments. ... I don't care if I want to have a beer with him."

-- Christy Goodman

UPDATE 3:59 p.m.: At four Ward 7 polling places in the Deanwood, Bladensburg and Kenilworth sections of Northeast, poll workers said electronic voting machines were down at the start of the day and that many voters stayed away from them in favor of traditional paper ballots.

At a polling place at Merritt Middle School in Northeast, only 16 people out of roughly 300 had used electronic voting machines. "People don't get the technology. They want to see the paper trail," said Ruth Paige, a precinct captain.

At a polling place at Mount Horeb Baptist Church off of Bladensburg Road NE, a worker struggled to show a reporter how to insert the box-like transponder used to activate the machines and set up the ballots.

-- Derek Kravitz

UPDATE 3:51 p.m.: Being a Fenty supporter in Ward 7, the home turf of Council Chair Vincent Gray, is a bit like being a Cowboys fan in the land of burgundy and gold.

"I'm a lone ranger," said Rashele Maclin, 33, of River Terrace, who voted for Fenty.

She supported the mayor because she has noticed improvements in crime, amenities such as a new library, and better schools. She said she had seen a "tremendous difference" at her alma mater Spingarn High School, which her son attends. She was impressed when one of his teachers called her about his shoelaces being untied in the hallway.

"Gray hasn't said what changes he will make because there aren't any," she said. "Schools are better. Crime is better."

(She is less contrarian when it comes to football. She was wearing a Redskins jersey.)

For every Rashel Maclin, there were many more Gray supporters. They included many who, like Maclin, credit Fenty for improving their quality of life, but also found his governing style off-putting.

Gray, by contrast, "was a good person to talk to," said Linda Chambers, 63, of River Terrace, who met Gray at a neighborhood cookout a couple of weeks ago. "I feel comfortable around him."

Chambers noted that she had not seen Fenty in her neighborhood since he ran in 2006.

"I didn't like the way they were let go," said Karen McPherson of Hillcrest.

Ramone Brandon arrived at St. Francis Xavier Church on Pennsylvania Avenue SE chanting "Fenty Got to Go!" He had a litany of grievances against Fenty, including giving contracts to friends and his refusal to meet with certain community groups during much of his tenure.

"The schools are revitalized -- I've noticed a big change -- but his arrogance is why I voted for Gray," said River Terrace resident Lania Coleman, 32. The single mother said River Terrace Elementary used to be so bad that she pulled her now 8- and 10-year-old children out and enrolled them at charter schools. She also cited what she called Fenty's "refusal to be transparent" and the contracts granted to friends. "There's some underhanded stuff going on."

-- Annys Shin

UPDATE 3:41 p.m.: Captain Gwendolyn O. Puryear of the 68th precinct at St. Francis Hall said she has worked with her poll workers through several elections. She reported no early morning glitches or issues.

"My people were trained early enough," she said. "I had a couple of people who thought they needed more training and went back.".

About 340 people had come through St. Francis Hall's doors as of 3 p.m., which Puryear said seemed about average considering the early voting districts.

-- Christy Goodman

UPDATE 3:14 p.m.: The Board of Elections and Ethics has fielded more complaints today about voters being lured to the polls with gift cards, elections officials say.

"We just note it and [have callers] give us all the information they can," board executive director Rokey W. Suleman II said. All information is passed to the U.S. Attorney's office for further investigation.

What do you think? Did you observe what looked to be low turnout, high turnout, or just-right turnout? Who will benefit, in your opinion? Leave you answers in the comments or go on over to the Election Day Monitor discussion group and talk about it there.

UPDATE 1:15 p.m.:Janice Copeland considers herself a educated voter. She reads blogs. She reads newspapers. She listens to the radio. So, she said, when it comes to the vote, she's not one to be "spun," as she said this morning with a no-nonsense look.

Standing on Alabama Avenue SE in front of Allen Chapel AME Church, her voice rose as she spoke: "I don't listen to none of this political back-and-forth, because that's just what it is. We need to be smarter as a people, see behind all this smoke and mirror stuff."

She said she referring to the attacks on Mayor Adrian M. Fenty by his chief opponent, Vincent C. Gray, as the smoke-and-mirror game she says she doesn't believe. So, she said she voted for the current mayor because she said she values the strides she believes have been made in the educational system.

"All these attacks on Fenty, they're see-through," she said. "No one can tell me this isn't a city that's better. We need to be smarter. Focus on the good. We'll be better off for it."

She went on, ticking off what she said were other positives: crime, pride in the city. And: "That boy has cleaned these streets. How can anyone say we're not a better city?"

-- Chris L. Jenkins

UPDATE 1:07 p.m.:At Wesley Methodist Church in the Chevy Chase section of the District, only 333 people had voted as of 12:30 p.m.

Poll workers said the turnout was unusually low for the generally politically active neighborhood. But the polling place is just a few blocks from the Chevy Chase community center, which was one of the five locations the District had set aside for two weeks of early voting, and turnout there had been the highest in the city.

Still, campaign officials from both the Fenty and Gray camps predicted a very low citywide turnout, perhaps under 100,000, which both sides attributed to the negative tone of the campaign.

-- Marc Fisher

UPDATE 1:02 p.m.:
It was just before high noon, and the campaign workers for Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and challenger Vincent C. Gray on the corner of Alabama Avenue SE and 25th Street SE were ready for a showdown.

"Gray all the way! Gray all the way!" shouted Moses Smith, a volunteer worker for the D.C. Council chairman. Dressed in all white with a summer hat on, he raised up his arms and pumped his fist as he was showered with honks from several cars passing by. "Yeah!"

From his left came an equally passionate voice. "Whoop there it is! Four more years! Whoop there it is! Four more years!" A man in a red track suit didn't break stride as he passed a half dozen Gray and Fenty supporters in front of Allen Chapel AME Church. "Whoop there it is! Four more years!" The man turned around and flashed a grin, still walking.

"Okay, that was good," Smith said. But not missing a beat, he stepped to the
curb: "Vince Gray all day! Vince Gray all day!"

"Oh, man, you blind," said a Fenty worker who wouldn't offer her name. The two smiled at each other and kept with their cheers.

"Phil, I voted for your son, I think he's doing a great job," a man in a suit said, stopping to shake his hand. "I'm the daddy," Fenty replied, smiling.

A practicing Buddhist with a heart shaped stud stuck in his left ear, Phil Fenty, 70, said he retired earlier this year from Fleet Feet Sports, the Adams Morgan athletic shop he and Jan, the mayor's mother, own.

He described his mood as "great" and predicted that his son would win reelection, the foreboding polls notwithstanding. "Who did they call?" he asked, adding that, like his son, he does not believe in polls.

Phil Fenty said he stopped reading the papers six to eight months ago because of the "negativity, not specifically about him, but anybody." The most difficult criticism of his son for him to endure, he said, has been that he is arrogant.

"Where do they get that?," he asked. "I can't believe it. That crawls under my skin. To me, that someone has never seen him cut a ribbon with kids."

"They said he didn't go to enough funerals," he continued. "Are you kidding me? He went so much. And when he went to a funeral they criticized the suit he wore."

He said his son has managed the city "perfectly," highlighted by his enduring tremendous criticism even as he sought to reform the public schools.

"The city is on a tremendous roll," he said. "This was the laughingstock of the country. They're not kicking Washington anymore."

He said he has never offered his son political advice because "I don't tell my children what to do." But he recognizes that the public can be fickle.

"We wanted change in this city, and he delivered," he said."Then its not enough. The public wanted more. When you're a public servant working 24/7, I don't know where there's more to give. We put people on pedestals, and if they're not big enough we kick the pedestal out from under them."

Asked what his son would do if he's defeated, his father said that " 'lose' is not even a word we consider."

"If we wake up in the morning, we win," he said. "How can you lose? He's had a great four years."

-- Paul Schwartzman

UPDATE 12:11 p.m.: Yvonne Garner has been the precinct captain for the 81st precinct for some 15 years and had the most trouble this morning because of new equipment, she said.

She must use one laptop for the special ballots and no longer has the old registration books, slowing things down. There were issues breaking the seal on the paper ballot scanner, too, but they fixed that in time to open at 7 a.m., she said.

The touchscreen ballot booth wasn't up and running until 9:20 a.m. because of technical difficulties, she said.

"There are too many pieces of equipment and inadequate training of poll workers," she said. "Change is okay, but not too many at one time."

-- Christy Goodman

UPDATE 12:07 p.m.: Micheal White, 18, waited in line for more than a half hour to place his first vote "to get the experience," he said as he kept his 6 year-old brother, Amani Hart, occupied.

White was waiting in the 81st's precinct's special ballot line because he wasn't on the main registry.

He said he watched the news and had discussions about the race with his family. He also was "looking out" for his friends who didn't fare so well with the summer job program.

As the brothers left the Myrtilla Miner Elementary School, a Vince Gray volunteer thanked them for voting.

White was registered without a party affiliation and said he wasn't as disappointed as he thought he would be for not being able to cast his first vote.

"I stood in line for almost an hour and then they tell me I can't vote?" said Brenda Butler, 48, outside of the Myrtilla Miner school's gym. Butler discovered she was registered without a party affiliation. "Now I'm late for work," she said.

Over at the 82nd precinct, one 38-year-old voter who asked not to be named, said he called BOEE twice to make sure he could change his party affiliation and vote today. He said he was told he could. But after nearly two hours in the Sherwood Rec Center, he left without voting.

"I took my time out of the day. I did my due diligence before I came here.
I think it is ludicrous I can't vote because I'm not a Democrat," the man said. "I've been misguided on my voting rights."

DC Board of Elections Voter Guide mentions that the registration card bar codes can be read this year at primary election polling places. There were no bar code scanners at 16th and P, NW (Methodist Church) this morning. Seems like bar code scanners would hasten the line of voters. Wonder what happened.

Just posted on facebook by Howard University students,Mayor Fenty is buying Howard University student votes for $200 on election day. People signed up in the morning and the afternoon to go out to vote and to try to get their classmates to same day register and vote for the Mayor. They started meeting just 15 minutes ago at 2019 8th St., NW between V St. and Florida Ave. behind the Tower at Howard University. The contact phone number for this vote buying adventure was, not surprisingly considering Fenty's allegiances outside of the state, (720)254-0177. COMBAT VOTE BUYING!!! WE DESERVE BETTER! D.C. DESERVES ONE CITY!See More

Well, voting was not so much fun today.....I encouraged my elderly friends to go..there was a van. The Rec. Area was set up with the "booths" far apart and it was confusing. Any teacher could have made big signs: STOP 1 STOP 2 STOP 3 STOP 4

I forgot to mention. At 12:15 There were 408 votes counted on the paper ballot machine and 120 counted on the new machine. Yikes...are people too exausted from all the campaign mailings and those darn Robo calls..(I unplugged my phone)Ward 6 Precinct 127 Hopefully, the early birds have it!

When I voted at a little after noon in Ward 3, the voting machine said I was about number 137. Granted, a lot of people have work and maybe can't get there yet, but I was surprised to be one of maybe four voters in at the time.

I agree with the other comments about the interview with Fenty's father today. He said everything Fenty has done was "perfect" and he doesn't tell his children what to do. The problem has been identified. The father doesn't talk with his son about problems and his son doesn't ask for his counsel. So now I understand Daddy Nickels' role. I knew we would get to the root of Fenty's problem eventually. Too bad we did not hear the father's comments earlier, there would be less votes for this arrogant man.

I don't believe how many are unaware of their polling station, the hours to vote and whether or not they are even active. I called BOEE two weeks ago, I found out I was inactive in the system, and was told that I had up until Sept. 13th to come to office and update my information. I was told I would not be able to change my party affiliation at such a late date. I had no problem at all. I think a lot of people were not proactive with finding out this information beforehand, and are now trying to blame the boee office or either one of the campaigns. All of this stuff was clear on the website. Please stop the election day drama!

Ah the return of the ever popular hanging chad. And we get upset over elections in Iraq, Afghan, Russia etc? And DC is still spelled Chicago only the Chicago folks really know how to steal an election.

I like the Phil Fenty comment, "Then its not enough. The public wanted more. When you're a public servant working 24/7, I don't know where there's more to give. We put people on pedestals, and if they're not big enough we kick the pedestal out from under them."

Could've been written about the way Fenty and Rhee have treated DCPS teachers.

Got an email today saying that if Fenty loses, he will run in the general as a Republican or Independent. Yipee! One Fenty supporter said it might be difficult to vote Republican. I pointed out that Fenty had already been supported by the DC Republicans.

I applied online last month to work at the polls during the election today and in November. I swear this is true - I never heard from anyone until someone left me a message on this Sunday night (day before yesterday) a little before 10 PM from asking me if I would like to work today. I called yesterday after getting home from errands and told them I had very much wanted to do this, but it was the day before and I had no training. It was a little before 2pm. They asked if I could come to train last night starting at 5 PM (I could not) and then asked if I was nearby and could come to the training that started at 1 PM. (Nope). Am I surprised to hear there were people working there who were clueless. Nope. I cannot imagine how many other people were contacted for the first time less than 24 hours before a training session an less than 48 hours before the polls opened. What a disappointment. Come on DC.

Ten dollar gift cards are a "scheme" and Ron Moten is a "community activist and Fenty supporter". I had a call from a friend reporting on Ron over in ward 8 earlier tonight showing his behind as usual and acting accordingly.

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